Susan D. Blum

Professor
Fellow, Kellogg Institute for International Studies; Fellow, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies; Fellow, Institute for Educational Initiatives; Fellow, Eck Institute for Global Health; Fellow, Shaw Center for Children and Families

Education

PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Anthropology
MA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Anthropology
MA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Chinese Language and Literature
AB (BA), Stanford University, Human Language (Linguistics)

Research and Teaching Interests

Cultural, linguistic, and psychological anthropology; learning and education; person and self; morality and ethics; wellbeing; sustainability and food; China and the US

Biography

Susan D. Blum is a cultural, linguistic, and psychological anthropologist specializing in the study of China and the United States. She received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and also has two MAs—in Anthropology and in Chinese Language and Literature (both from Michigan)--and a BA in Human Language from Stanford University.

The author or editor of nine books and dozens of articles, her latest book, titled Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) was published in December 2020 by the West Virginia University Press, in the series Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, edited by James Lang.

She has taught at Oklahoma State University, The University of Colorado Denver, The University of Denver, The University of Pennsylvania, and The University of Notre Dame, where she is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology. At Notre Dame, she has served as Director of the Center for Asian Studies and Chair of the Department of Anthropology. She is a Fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, a Fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives, a Fellow of the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, a Fellow of the Eck Institute for Global Health, and a Fellow of the Shaw Center for Children and Families.

She received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for her book, Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths (2007), and has received the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator's Award, 2010, for her book My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture (2009), which was translated into Chinese in 2011. Blum has also received an Excellence in Teaching award from The University of Colorado Denver (2000) and the Reverend Edmund P. Joyce, CSC, Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from The University of Notre Dame (2010).